Grand Prix Phoenix Day 1 Coverage

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Day One of Grand Prix Phoenix has wrapped up, and a field of 1463 players has been knocked down to 172. Sitting at the top of the standings are Michael Peterson, No. 6 Ranked Player Shahar Shenhar, No. 23 Ranked Player Eric Froehlich, Grand Prix San Diego 2013 Champion Nathan Holiday, and 2012 Magic Online Champion Dmitriy Butakov.

Butakov in particular stands out as the lone combatant not representing one of the recognized Standard archetypes from the previous three weekends. The Magic Online player from Russia is taking advantage of his trip to the United States to compete in last weekend's 2013 Magic Online Championship in order to compete in a Grand Prix or two while he is here. His Bant Control deck, an interesting departure from his choice of Esper Control in last weekend's tournament, gives him some unique tools, but will they be enough to maintain his solid record?

Tune in tomorrow as we bring you live coverage from here in Phoenix, Arizona!

Saturday, 12:35 p.m. – Standard's Evolution

by Mike Rosenberg

Buenos Aires. Cincinnati. Beijing. And now, Phoenix.

Four Grand Prix weekends, all taking place in sequence, have shown the development and evolution of the Standard format across multiple continents. While Standard generally showcases known archetypes, it is through the accurate prediction of the metagame and the changes that the top archetypes go through that shows the evolution and re-shaping of Standard.

With Grand Prix Phoenix set to show us the latest in Standard, it seems appropriate to look back on the past month and see what has led to Phoenix's metagame.

Let's start with Buenos Aires, an event taken down by Brazilian Philippe Monlevade and his Jund Monsters deck.

While Esper, Mono-Black Devotion, and Mono-Blue Devotion were two of the more heavily played archetypes that weekend, Jund Monsters followed closely behind these archetypes as the fourth most common deck among players who returned to Day Two of Buenos Aires, and it's clear as to why. Jund Monsters packs a powerful variety of threats ranging from big creatures like Polukranos, World Eater and Reaper of the Wilds to devastating card-advantage engines such as Courser of Kruphix and Domri Rade. As a side note, if you haven't had both Domri and Courser in play at the same time, you haven't experienced one of Standard's true delights, as the two play very well off of each other.

Perhaps Monlevade's biggest strength was the prevalence of Mono-Blue Devotion, which he blasted through in the Quarterfinals and Finals. Polukranos happens to be a fine answer to Master of Waves, and his gargantuan size makes him a potent threat capable of ending the game in mere turns. Course of Kruphix's incremental life gain and card-advantage effect also proves useful, ensuring the Jund Monsters player typically draws spells on their turn while the lands come into play off the top of their deck.

However, this archetype's prevalence did not last long, as the two most commonly seen archetypes of Standard, Black and Blue Devotion respectively, have some powerful hate for green creatures.

In Grand Prix Cincinnati, Jund Monsters was unable to crack into the Top 8 despite being the fourth most played archetype on Day Two of the event. A lot of the cause for this was seen in the Black decks seen in the Top 8, all of which packed a minimum of two Lifebane Zombies in their main deck.

This Mono-Black aggro list packs the full number of Lifebane Zombies in the main deck, which is particularly back-breaking against Jund Monsters given their heavy leaning on four mana green creatures. Blue Devotion also began to adapt white with this event, with Jeffrey Pyka piloting a U/w Devotion deck with four main-deck Detention Spheres to the Top 8. Combine this with the already efficient Tidebinder Mage in the match-up, and it's easy to see why Jund Monsters failed to crack into the Top 8.

However, none of these decks were able to hold up against Esper Control, the dominant deck of the weekend, and the ultimate winner of Grand Prix Cincinnati in the hands of Kyle Boggemes.

Moving on to Beijing, where the Standard metagame makes a huge shift. Mono-Black Devotion was the clear leader in Day Two, followed shortly behind by Esper Control, Boros Burn, and Jund Monsters. However, neither previous Grand Prix winners were able to crack into the Top 8 for this event, with both decks missing the Top 8 cut in Beijing. While Esper colors made it into the Semifinal, it was in the form of Ken Sawada's Esper Midrange instead.

Boros Burn, however, made a huge showing at Beijing with three players burning their way to the Top 8, including Grand Prix Beijing finalist Sherwin Pu. The deck preys on both Mono-Black Devotion and Esper Control decks that lean too heavily on life-gain getting them out of a predicament, with the deck running multiple copies of Skullcrack to shut down any blow-outs from Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Sphinx's Revelation.

Watanabe did more than earn his staggering seventh Grand Prix title (tying Hall-of-Famer Kai Budde for most Grand Prix wins). He also introduced some new tech to Mono-Black Devotion. While the four main-deck Lifebane Zombies are an expected metagame trend and perfectly good at disrupting Jund Monsters as well as randomly hosing a couple of Blue Devotion's creatures (with even more creatures in that deck now vulnerable to Lifebane Zombie due to the archetype's dip into white), it was the four copies of Staff of the Death Magus that served Watanabe well through the Top 8, the three mana artifact proving to be a crucial element against Boros Burn, especially in his Semifinal match against Ben Ge. Watanbe accurately predicted a metagame flourishing with Boros Burn, and his prediction was rewarded at this event.

With Watanabe's victory fresh in everyone's heads, as well as Lars Dam's victory with Black Devotion splashing red at the 2013 Magic Online Championship, Black Devotion is the deck to beat going into Grand Prix Phoenix. How will players adjust to the expected turn-out for this archetype? What is the correct deck to run if you're trying to get an accurate read on the metagame?

We'll find out later today, both as we see the metagame unfold, and as we talk to players and get their thoughts on the current Standard format.

Quick Hits - What is the best strategy for combating Black Devotion?

by Mike Rosenberg

No. 11 Ranked Player Alexander Hayne: "My personal favorite way is to cast big Sphinx's Revelations and out-draw them, using scry lands to keep your best cards on top of your library to keep them hidden from hand disruption.

No. 6 Ranked Player Shahar Shenhar: "I would say Dredge. Dredge is the best deck you can play to just beat Mono-Black. You could also play a Mono-Red creature deck. Staff of the Death Magus is not as insane against a Mono-Red creature deck as it is against the burn deck.

Grand Prix Minneapolis 2012 Champion Christian Calcano: "It's tough. Normally I'd say the Boros Burn decks, but the Mono-Black decks adapting with Staff of the Death Magus in the sideboard. I just think the white-blue control decks are the best way. They have a lot of answers for what that deck's trying to do.

Pro Tour Born of the Gods Quarterfinalist Tim Rivera: "I plan for the mirror. Erebos, God of the Dead and Duress effects. I think Mono-Black is the best deck so that's my goal.

Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa: "What I like to do is have very powerful cards, since they have discard spells and it's easy to get into a top-deck war against Mono-Black. Sphinx's Revelation, for example, is a card you'd want in a top-deck war since you'd be ahead in those situations. The other way to combat is to beat them very quickly, but now they have Staff of the Death Magus so that's kind of awkward. It's a hard deck to beat since it has cards that are good against everything. Maybe Dredge, since your guys are big and are hard to deal with, and they come back after they deal with them.

Quick Hits - What is the most underrated removal spell in Standard?

by Mike Rosenberg and Adam Styborski

2011 World Championship Semifinalist Conley Woods: "Turn & Burn. I would play more if I wasn't playing five colors. If I was just Blue-Red Green or Blue-Red I'd play two or three right now. It kills Mutavaults, deals with Blood Baron of Vizkopas, and sets up a lot of two-for-ones.

No. 23 Ranked Player Eric Froehlich: "Dreadbore. It has more functionality against control decks. Every deck is very powerful, either with creatures or planeswalkers. Dreadbore deals with them either way.

Hall of Famer Brian Kibler: "Shock. Shock costs one mana, and against aggressive decks you're playing against time rather than value. Being able to kill something for one mana and play something else that same turn is valuable. You're mostly trying to buy time against a lot of those decks.

No. 6 Ranked Player Shahar Shenhar: "Golgari Charm and Abrupt Decay. They are so versatile. For Golgari Charm, against Elspseth, Sun's Champion for example you can -1/-1 their team and attack in when their plan is to chump-block. It kills Underworld Connections, it can regenerate your team and it kills Detention Spheres end-of-turn. Abrupt Decay is kind of the same thing. It doesn't stop Elspeth, but it's a main-deck card since it can kill almost anything. It can kill both bestow creatures, Nighthowler and Herald of Torment.

Saturday, 4:53 p.m. – Top Tables Metagame – Round 5

by Adam Styborski

Coming off Grand Prix Beijing, Mono-Black Devotion was among the most popular archetypes in Standard. It was the most played deck on Day 2, and tied for making Top 8 there as well. Boros Burn was the other high-placing deck of the weekend since it was one of the ways to handle the black menace, but Esper Control-playing Yuuya Watanabe demonstrated what Staff of the Death Magus could do against the faster deck. With that technology available, Mono-Black Devotion was still among the best positioned for Phoenix, with a cadre of popular options behind it: Mono-Blue Devotion, White Weenie, "Monster" decks of Jund and Red-Green varieties, Blue Devotion with a black or more often white splash, and White-Black Midrange and Control.

Five rounds into the showdown at Phoenix, this is what was among the top twenty-five tables:

Archetype

Count

Esper Control

11

Mono-Black Devotion

6

Red-Green Midrange

5

Boros Burn

5

Mono-Blue Devotion

4

White-Black Midrange

3

Mono-Red Aggro

3

Jund Monsters

3

Black-Red Aggro

2

Azorius Control

2

White-Black-Red Aggro

1

White Weenie

1

Mono-Green Devotion

1

Jund Dredge

1

Big Naya

1

Bant Control

1

Or, summarized by percentages:

While it's just a taste of the data – there were many more going into the round with a 4-0 record – it does point in the directions we expected. Esper Control and Mono-Black Devotion account for a third of the decks across the top tables, with Red-Green Midrange (Monsters) and Boros Burn close behind to round out the top half. Mostly other aggressive decks with a splash of Azorius Control filled things out.

Was this really what everyone was expecting? We caught up with currently 10th-ranked and 2013 Player of the Year Josh Utter-Leyton for his thoughts. Coming into Phoenix, Utter-Leyton expected "Esper Control and Mono-Black Devotion being the big two – more popular than everything else by a fair margin. The next most popular in order: Blue Devotion, Monsters with or without splashing black, and Burn decks."

2013 Player of the Year Josh Utter-Leyton is known for his knack at understanding Constructed formats.

We gave Utter-Leyton a chance to look at what we pulled from the top tables. "That was pretty much exactly what I said, right?" Utter-Leyton laughed at the eerie prescience. With Red-Green Midrange pushing larger than expected, why would someone choose that deck over one of the other options? "If Esper Control's the deck to beat," Utter-Leyton explained, "Monsters is good against it. Something like Mono-Blue isn't."

It's a little early for predictions, but we'll follow up with another look in two rounds to see evolution at work. What do you expect we'll find?

Saturday, 7:17 p.m. – Top Tables Metagame – Round 7

by Adam Styborski

It's over halfway through Day 1 of Grand Prix Phoenix, and the press to make Day 2 is beginning in earnest. As players see and face down more opponents, those with winning lists begin to rise to the top. Two round earlier it was clear Esper Control and Midrange, as well as Black Devotion decks, were the dominant share of the top tables metagame. This is how it looked across the top twenty-four tables going into Round 7:

Archetype

Count

Black Devotion

13

Esper Control & Midrange

7

Blue Devotion

7

Jund Monsters

4

Bant Control

3

Boros Burn

3

White-Green Aggro

2

Black-Red Aggro

2

Mono-Red Aggro

2

Azorius Control

1

Red-Green Midrange

1

Jund Dredge

1

White-Blue-Red Control

1

Mono-Green Devotion

1

(Note: Blue Devotion and Black Devotion include splash variants of the Mono-Versions)

Again, as percentages of the field:

Is this how the metagame of a mature format performs? Pro Tour Hall of Famer William "Huey" Jensen had been watching events unfold as a coverage commentator in Phoenix, so we asked him what he had seen so far.

"Pretty much what I expected," Jensen said. "A lot of Esper. A sprinkling of Red-Green Monsters, Jund Monsters, a little Blue Devotion, but mostly Sphinx's Revelation decks and Black Devotion. Conley Wood's Five-Color Control deck was interesting, probably the most unique deck we've seen so far."

A formidable player in his own right, Hall of Famer William Jensen was in front of the camera throughout Grand Prix Phoenix.

What did he expect to see coming into the weekend? "Black Devotion and Esper. I wrote an article this week that looks at the Top 40 decks from the last three Standard Grand Prix – Top 16, Top 16, and Top 8 – and those two decks accounted for 55% of the Top 40."

So is this what a mature format looks like? Jensen seemed to agree. "There's a little room for innovation," Jensen said. "I don't think there's a Tier 1 deck that hasn't been discovered, especially right now: Born of the Gods didn't have a big impact on Standard. A lot of decks have been Tier 1 since the release of Theros so I'd be surprised to find more then metagame tweaks at this point."

What's the most compelling metagame tweak he's seen so far? "I think most notable tweak is the addition of red for Rakdos's Return to the Mono-Black deck," Jensen said. "Rakdos's Return is very good against Esper and the Mono-Black mirror. It's also pretty good against Burn, interestingly."

Jensen's succinct summary of Grand Prix Phoenix so far: "It's been the status quo. It's exactly what I expected to see."

We'll follow up and see what the end of Day 1 has to say about maintaining the status quo of Born of the Gods Standard.

No. 23 Ranked Player Eric Froehlich put up an impressive finish with the touch of red that he added to the Black Devotion deck, finishing in the Top 16 and missing out thanks to some rough beats in the final rounds of Grand Prix Cincinnati. Today, he's playing the same general idea, but has some prepared with a few changes based on his expectations of what this week's metagame looks like.

"I made a few changes to the deck. I really liked it," Froehlich said. "This tournament, I actually have no red cards in the main deck, but I have three Rakdos's Returns in the sideboard.. Rakdos's Return is one of the best cards in Standard, but at the same time it needs complements."

On the other hand, a card that was missing from his 75 in Cincinnati – Pack Rat – has now made its appearance in his list. "I didn't play Pack Rat in my main deck [in Cincinnati], because I think it's a lot weaker in Standard and I still think that, but the decks that it is better against I thought were going to be more popular this week," Froehlich explained.

The expected popularity of Yuuya Watanabe's Grand Prix Beijing-winning list would favor Pack Rat in the main deck, with Watanabe's one main-deck Bile Blight making way for Pack Rat to be a much stronger play. With the Blue Devotion decks now moving back to Mono-Blue, and away from variants running Temple of Enlightenment and Detention Sphere, Pack Rat is much better positioned strategy.

The Rakdos's Returns work better out of the sideboard against decks like Esper and – surprisingly – the Jund Monsters decks since their deck can sometimes be too slow to deal with the card. "Against Esper, my plan morphs into stripping their hand of counterspells, letting them keep all their Detention Spheres and Supreme Verdicts. Just don't play things early, then hit them with Rakdos's Return," Froehlich said.

The game plan has been working out for him all day, and his metagame call also accurate. Froehlich sits at 7-0 going into the eighth round against Daniel Ward, who is bringing Bant Control to the table.

While Froehlich's ability to strip a control deck's hand would be powerful, it was not a guaranteed route to victory if the control player could draw Sphinx's Revelation at the right time.

When Froehlich had Whip of Erebos and an activation to bring the Gray Merchant back on the next turn, an attack with the Merchant and Erebos, God of the Dead locked up the game for Froehlich, who went from an Erebos and an Underworld Connections to a sudden 14 damage out of nowhere, prompting the players to move to Game 2.

However, Dissolve to stop Froehlich's Desecration Demon from getting onto the board, and Elspeth, Sun's Champion put Ward back into the game. While Froehlich had Hero's Downfall to shut down the planeswalker, the three tokens it provided would be be a contending force to race Froehlich's Lifebane Zombie. However, 1/1 tokens have problems attacking into untapped Mutavaults, and despite Froehlich's glut of lands, two of the lands were Mutavaults, so he still had the advantage in the race.

Bubble-Match Round-Up

by Mike Rosenberg

Going into the ninth and final round with 18 points, a 6-2 record, is always a little nerve-wracking. Today, a win secures your place into Day Two, and keeps the dream of a Top 8 alive. A loss, however, ensures that your time in the main event is at an end.

A few notable 18 point matches are taking place in the final round of Day One. Who would be moving on, and who would be getting the sleep-in special that they did not sign up for?

However, a third Grand Prix title was not in Lalague's future, as Leeper dispatched his opponent in the Black Devotion mirror match 2-1.

Table 60: Seth Manfield (Esper Control) vs. Joshua Piper (Junk)

Seth Manfield has had a hot year, with a Grand Prix victory in Kansas City last July, a Top 8 finish at Grand Prix Toronto last year, and a Top 8 finish at Grand Prix Dallas Fort Worth a week after that, Manfield is in a good position to lock up gold and hopefully platinum for the following season. This is all on top of his 2013 Magic Online Championship appearance last week. However, his tournament life was on the line, as he faced off against Joshus Piper's Junk deck with his Standard mainstay, Esper Control.

However, Manfield's experience served him well with the archetype, and he was able to overcome his opponent with a 2-0 victory.

Table 62: Joey Keep (Naya Midrange) vs. David Ochoa (B/r Devotion)

Platinum pro David Ochoa is looking to make up for a relatively unexciting first half of the season, and each solid Grand Prix finish will aid him in his pursuit of platinum for yet another year. His opponent, Joey Keep, was looking to add another early exit to Ochoa's rough season.

David Ochoa

However, Ochoa's Black/red-splash Devotion was able to defeat Keep and his Naya Midrange deck 2-1 in the final round, giving Ochoa another shot at adding a solid Grand Prix finish to his year.

No. 10 Ranked Player Josh Utter-Leyton has a unique take on Black Devotion this weekend, with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver making an appearance over Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Like his friend and teammate David Ochoa, Utter-Leyton has also had a relatively uneventful first-half of the 2013-2014 season, and a solid Grand Prix finish here in Phoenix would be warmly welcomed.

No. 10 Ranked Player Josh Utter-Leyton

Unfortunately for Utter-Leyton, that finish would elude him this weekend, as Corrente defeated Utter-Leyton 2-1 in their final round match.

Grand Prix Dallas Fort Worth 2013 Champion Marlon Avila Gutierrez was one of the few players who made the trek up to Phoenix from Mexico. As the first Mexican national to win a United States Grand Prix, Gutierrez sought to take another trophy back to Mexico City with him. However, he found himself needing a win in the final round with his Black Devotion deck (splashing a touch of red) against Alexander Lapping's Esper Control in the final round.

However, his deck did not disappoint, and Gutierrez was able to advance with a 2-0 victory.

Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa was looking for a third Grand Prix Top 8 to add to his season's big finishes. The Brazilian pro had a lot of work to do to reach platinum status for the year, or to catch up with current point leader Willy Edel for South America's spot in the World Championship.

Hall of Famer Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa

Unfortunately for him, this weekend would not be one of those finishes he was looking for. His Esper Deck succumbed to Vlad Paracheiv's Black Devotion deck, who dispatched the Hall of Famer 2-1 in the final round.

It's a nice crown to take away from Day One of a Grand Prix. Starting Day Two well positioned for a Top 8 run is what players work hard to find, and there were ten who stood poised for the prize. These are the matches we saw.

Michael Peterson, with a typical Mono-Black Devotion deck, faced off against Kai Ruan with the Grand Prix Cincinnati-winning Esper Control deck. In this case, however, it was Peterson that cleared the decisive match two games to zero.

23rd-ranked Eric Froehlich and his splash-red Black Devotion list was paired against Michael Bonacini with a Mono-Black deck of his own. The red proved the edge, putting Froehlich into perfection for Day One in two games to zero.

2013 Word Champion and currently 6th-ranked Shahar Shenhar had his take on Esper Control to try and defeat Andreas Ganz with another Black Devotion deck splashing red. A red edge was not enough as Shenhar defeated Ganz without dropping a game.

2012 Magic Online Champion Dmitry Butakov brought the atypical Bant Control deck to the affair, with Brandon Bercovich's traditional Mono-Black Devotion standing in the way. Butakov's switch from Esper Control in the previous weekend's 2013 Magic Online Championship proved worthy as he stepped past Bercovich, two games to zero.

There was much more than just the ten running towards undefeated at the end of Day One. Here's the complete breakdown of archetypes from the top twenty-five tables going into Round 9:

Archetype

Count

Black Devotion

13

Esper Control & Midrange

10

Blue Devotion

8

Jund Monsters

4

Azorius Control

3

Mono-Red Aggro

3

Red-Green Monsters

2

Bant Control

2

White-Black Midrange

1

Mono-Green Devotion

1

Red Burn

1

Boros Burn

1

White-Green Aggro

1

(Note: Blue Devotion and Black Devotion include splash variants of the mono-colored versions)

And as a more digestible pie:

Another Caption

At a glance it's clear the cluster of proven decks continues to tighten, with Black Devotion, Esper, and Blue Devotion decks filling nearly two-thirds of the entire top twenty-five tables. Jund Monsters, Azorius Control, and Red Aggro – all decks that have had varying levels of popularity at the last several Grand Prix – remained close behind.

Metagame adjustments can likely explain the dramatic drop in the performance of Boros Burn compared to Grand Prix Beijing, but the surprising star of Day One is the rise of Bant Control featuring favorites like Kiora, the Crashing Wave. It may not be an entirely new archetype for the weekend, but we'll be watching the performance of the new face closely as it is one of the five undefeated decks – joining Esper Control, Mono-Blue Devotion, and two Black Devotion.

We'll return with the complete Day Two metagame breakdown tomorrow morning.